Over the past few days, Ang had barely had a moment of rest.
He visited every old acquaintance he could find in the Maple Sugar Plane.
Yet as one familiar face after another vanished into the depths of memory, he truly came to understand the cruelty of war.
Many had long since fallen in bloody battles against the Demons. Even among the students who had followed him in Latvia back then, most had failed to survive.
Those youthful faces remained in his heart as they had been—full of hope and fighting spirit. Now, he could only remember them through scattered news and graves.
The only small comfort was that he could still find a few survivors, but their eyes no longer held their former brightness.
The loss of their loved ones and families had made them taciturn. Even their smiles had become heavy.
Meanwhile, under Ang's pressure, the Grand Duke of Tan'anster finally yielded and opened the Plane Portal.
Every day, great numbers of civilians filed through it, carrying their meager belongings as they returned to Tan'anster City.
The streets were packed to the brim, filled with cries and farewells.
Ang had originally intended to send these people to the Archipelago Plane. Order was more stable there, and at the very least, their safety and livelihoods could be guaranteed.
But once the news spread, the nobles under the Grand Duke of Tan'anster seemed to catch the scent of something amiss. They forcefully blocked the move, refusing to let civilians flow into the Archipelago Plane.
Ang watched coldly, and immediately understood.
When he had first arrived in this world, he had thought Tan'anster was a duchy, a regime with formidable strength.
Now, it seemed these so-called "nobles of the duchy" were nothing more than a group of selfish people.
Katie had